I think, more than anything, it is the massive disrespect and "what are you going to do about it?" attitude portrayed in that picture that is pushing the most buttons with people.
The Lincoln Memorial isn't exactly the Vietnam War Memorial, but it's also not a place where anyone wants to watch you take the bait from the Black Israelites and have forty screaming children treating it like a high school pep rally. Between that and the MAGA gear, I think the label of "disrespectful little shits" was firmly affixed before anyone even got to the confrontation with Phillips.
You are really down playing the Black Isrealites here, particularly if you are saying the kids were being disrespectful before the Indian guy came into the picture. Fucking grown ass men shouting at teens that they are faggots and incestuous and all sorts of nonsense.You write off as Black Isrealite doing Black Isrealites things. They should take the blame for escalating the situation, keying the kids up, with shit they should know better as adults not to do. The onus should be on them to not do it in the first place then blaming the chaperones. In the big picture with the PC left their actions should see them on the unending harassment from the social mob, but they'll be written off as cooks or simply ignored because they are POC. Out of how terribly teenagers could have reacted, as all teenagers are nitwits by nature, it really wasn't even that bad. It's only portrayed as terrible because of the demographics of the teens. Misdirected anger in every direction.
I mean I regard them the same way I regard the crazy preacher who comes on campus to call all the kids fornicators who will burn in hell. Yeah, they're nuts, but what are you gonna do? Everyone else just ignores them and gets to class.
Except the misdirected outrage out the kids has huge social consequences for them for an event that these yokals were the main driving force behind. Sucks to be the kids I guess. Another day another bullshit media firestorm.
Have you ever encountered Black Israelites in real life? I have. They are far more than just the crazy campus preacher. They are a militant black nationalist hate group.
Everyone knows the BI’s are crazy as shithouse rats. Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown were members. The end.
I’ve found standing in someone’s face smirking and staring to be a highly effective deescalation technique. There may be more to the initial story but that group of kids aren’t innocent high schoolers who have been mischaracterized.
He goes to a boys-only catholic school while wearing a MAGA hat to protest abortions. Let’s not pretend he isn’t a screwed-up tool. But that’s all he is— a kid manufactured to be a smug idiot, and his fifteen minutes consists of being Punchable Face Kid.
If by sheltered you mean "no real repercussions to his shitty actions", then yep, I agree. He has the total look of "what are you going to to about it?", knowing that the other guy is responding within societal boundaries. It really is amazing the lesson people learn when they get punched in the face for doing something "wrong"... they tend to not do it again.
He wrote a statement that basically attempted to paint him and his friends in the most innocent possible light. I mean I’m sure there are many sides to the story, but to try to make it seem like you went to that spot, wore your MAGA hats, and began to engage some Black Hebrews and you were just some innocent kids reciting your school chant smacks of bullshit to me.
They were in DC for a anti abortion protest. They were on that spot specifically because they were waiting for a bus to pick them up. The video shows the black isrealites fucking with them first and the Indian interjecting himself into the situation. Are we watching the same videos? You guy have FUCKING WHITE MALE derangement syndrome if you’re squarely blaming the kids. Obviously the kid is going to paint the situation in the best light for himself, the Indian did the same thing plus he edit his video for maximum impact. Outside the fact that they are smarmy private school kids their actions on either video don’t show anything that warrants the reaction it has. It has been enlightening how deeply entrenched people are over the cultural wars in this country.
It's funny how this hatred of a teenage white kid is sanctioned and entirely permissible but hatred toward any of those other groups clearly also not being their best selves is not. I guess it is as is usually said during these times: if it weren't for double standards, we wouldn't have any standards at all.